[liberty or death]

I love hunting, trapping and killing these very smart critters. Did I think they'd bring Alaska wolves south? Were there any wolves left here that were natural to the Rockies for their repopulating effort? Again it's the fact that politics has embedded itself into this and biological wildlife management was chucked out the door a long time ago.

I'll tell you this Vike. I'm almost 50 and the most exciting thing ever in my life was discovering a 9 and 1/2 foot male wolf in our trap. These dogs are huge, vicious and my 15 yr old and I were on cloud 9.

[OneVike]

Were there any wolves left here that were natural to the Rockies for their repopulating effort?

Funny you should ask. Check out what I found from a pro wolf reintroduction program site. I disagree with their conclusion, but the information that they offer is very informative. As I said I just disagree with their conclusion. :>)

This is a portion of a reply I gave to a liberal in my home town, who did not like my take on the wolf problem in Idaho.

when the government was being sued in court to stop the introduction of these Canadian wolves, it was none other than the National Audubon Society, Predator Project, Sinapu, and Gray Wolf Committee that joined the anti wolf farmers and hunters in litigation to stop the program from ever being started. I am talking about animal rights organizations who were primarily concerned with protecting the endangered status of naturally occurring Rockey Mountain gray wolves or better known to them as the Canis Lupus Irremotus. They were concerned that naturally occurring wolves which wandered into the recovery areas would essentially lose their “endangered” designation and would mistakenly be treated as part of the experimental population, or that the larger Canadian wolves would decimate what was left of the endangered Rockey Mountain wolve. (Which Has Happened).
In the resulting joined lawsuit, the first allegation was that defendants introduction of “Canadian” gray wolves, which were neither threatened nor endangered, violated the requirements of ESA section 10 (j). They wanted to show that the fact that the wolves indigenous to the northern Rocky Mountain region (Canis Lupus Irremotus) and the Canadian wolves used for reintroduction (Canis Lupus Occidentalis) were two different subspecies of gray wolf. They also argued that because the two types of wolves were distinct subspecies, the Recovery Plan would have an adverse impact on the conservation of the irremotus subspecies because of possible interbreeding, thus the Canis Lupus Iiremotus would cease to exist.
Thanks to the introduction of the Canadian Grays, not only are we seeing the destruction and devastation ofg the elk populations around Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming, we are also seeing the complete annihilation of the very animal they claimed they wanted to save, the Canis Lupus Iiremotusthe.

Further more, those determining the status of the Northwestern wolf, refused to look at the evidence from the coalition of farmers and hunters that proved there were close to 1000 wolves in Wyoming alone in the early "90"s.

So to answer your question, No the wolves who roamed in the lower 48 were not close to extinction. Sadly, in Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming they are now. All because of the larger ones they brought down who have killed them and taken over their territory.